Latino Review.com has offered up a scoop on the upcoming Justice League movie, claiming that the film’s final roster of characters will consist of Superman, Batman, Green lantern, Wonder Woman and The Flash. Which means that Martian Manhunter, Aquaman and Hawkman are sitting this one out (although the possibilities of cameos exist). The strength of this approach, of course, is the fact that audiences are already familiar with Batman, Superman (with the assumption being that Henry Cavill will reprise his Man of Steel role), and Green Lantern (despite the fact that the film of the same name starring Ryan Reynolds) did not fare well critically or commercially). Wonder Woman is certainly known, and likely will be even more so if the CW goes forward with the prequel TV series, Amazon. The big question mark is The Flash, but it would be a lot easier to introduce him as opposed to tacking on another two or three characters in this introductory movie for the JL.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Ever since word got out that Warners was planning for the Justice League film, there have been a lot of mixed feelings. The initial response, of course, was that the studio had seen the success of Marvel’s The Avengers and decided they wanted to jump to that kind of box office rather than take the chance on individual films to introduce the characters. The problem with this approach is two-fold. First, if it was going to be the full roster, there simply would be no way that all of those characters could be introduced successfully and in such a way that the audience would get behind them. Second, a major part of the reason that The Avengers worked as well as it did was based on the fact that the individual character films gave viewers enough of a background and depth for each of them that that “baggage” was automatically brought into the theatre and allowed for The Avengers to be much more of a pure action movie yet with a certain amount of dramatic/character weight to it. Compare it to the experience of watching Star Wars Episode IV prior to watching the prequel trilogy. Do so after the fact, and when we first catch sight of Darth Vader it suddenly comes with our knowledge of everything he went through before getting to this moment; Anakin Skywalker’s struggle with the Force and his ultimate seduction to the dark side. With Justice League, we’ve got the Christopher Nolan films to fill in Batman, though in all likelihood this will serve as the introduction of a new actor as the Dark Knight; plus we’ll have Cavill’s Superman and Reynolds’ GL. As noted above, while still a challenge, it will be much easier to give some attention to Wonder Woman and The Flash without taking too much away from the film itself if there are other characters.

Okay, this point is a complete tangent. Back when WB made it clear they were moving forward with a Justice League film, it was mentioned that William Beall was writing the screenplay, which was considered by the studio to be a major coup considering he had written the then still forthcoming Gangster Squad. Since then, of course, the film has been released and not been a critical or commercial hit, many of the criticisms being leveled against the script and the lack of distinctive characters. Obviously one project has nothing to do with another, but it’s a disquieting point. If one could reach out to the powers that are at WB, we would ask them to seriously reconsider the writer of the film. The focus, instead, should be turned to Bruce Timm and the writers who have spent years working with the most iconic DC characters on different animated series and the long-running string of made-for-DVD films. They have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they get these characters, and can adapt them in such a way that can make them live and breathe on screen. Proof of this comes in one of the final moments of Justice League Unlimited, and the climactic battle between Superman and Darkseid in which the Man of Steel proclaims he lives in a “world of cardboard.” That one speech (see video below) reveals more about Superman and who he is and what it’s like to be him – is more about character - than most other comic book movies. Of course, if we had our way, Warners would offer up the one thing that Marvel does not have: a Superman/Batman film which couldspin-off into the debut of the Justice League.

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http://www.facebook.com/chockie.cavill.7 Chockie Cavill

ahh cant wait.. Just want to know who is playing WW… in the pic its not Gina Carano… I have no idea who the girl is… But do you know??? mega WW fan.. oh and Henry’s too… lol

edgross

Gina’s the name that’s been bandied about (and I do find it interesting that she and Henry are dating… hmmm, wondering if they met on the set of Man of Steel). I just hope they can pull this movie off.